No pause button

It's funny how you never know at the start of a day just where things might go or what you might learn that will impact your day in an unexpected way.

About a week ago, I found an old friend on Facebook. Brian grew up two doors away from me during my Jr. high and Sr. high years. I can't even remember the last time we spoke or saw each other. It's strange how the mind works (or doesn't in my case) with things like this where you can't put your finger on a specific time or place yet you know it's been an incredibly long time. All the while, you wonder where the time went. You start counting years only to be shocked at how many have gone by.

In a quick reply on Facebook, Brian asks "Did you hear about Neil?". Neil grew up across the street from our house and was a year younger than me and Brian. The three of us goofed around a lot, went fishing, rode bikes/skates/skateboards, played baseball in the street and got in trouble from time to time. We were typical Jr. and Sr. high boys. My first thought at Brian's question is that this isn't good news about Neil. An e-mail later, my suspicion is confirmed and I find out that Neil was killed in a cycling accident last year. As I read that line in the e-mail, I wanted time to stop for a minute so that I could take things in. I wanted to hit the pause button...why isn't there a pause button in life? I've been in this situation before, several times, yet I still just want things to stop, just for a minute or two. A childhood friend is no longer alive yet I'd gone about my life for a year or so not knowing this. When I find out, it seemed only fair to pause time so I could catch up with things.

So, instead, I've gone about my day doing normal things but also taking time to think about life roughly 35 years ago when we were kids. The memories keep coming back and they're vivid. Neil was the kid that broke his arm skating down a hill but not making the corner. Neil went fishing with us. Neil built and rode skateboards with us. Neil was part of our seemingly daily summertime trips to the neighborhood pool. Neil played baseball in the court with us and did his fair share of shagging the tennis ball when it went into the Eastman's back yard. I learned about Nike shoes from Neil . Several times he'd saved his money and while on trips to (I think) Los Angeles, buy a pair of Nike Bruins...blue if I recall correctly and you could only get them in LA. Neil also had the biggest olive tree on the court in his front yard. This tree supplied endless slingshot ammunition and I can't count the number of cars we pelted while they drove past our street. We never got caught thanks to Neil 's yard having bushes with a built in tunnel system.

I wish I had a chance to know what Neil had been up to the past 20+ years and to talk about the fun we had growing up so many years ago. Sadly, I'd let time and distance take it's toll on things and have been out of touch for far too long.

News such as this can make you reflect and want to reprioritize some things in life. We're not guaranteed tomorrow so we need to make the most of the time we have today. The song "We Live" by SuperChick is rolling through my head right now. Listen/video here Lyrics here